How Do We Know Anything about Life? Where Do Our Thoughts Come from?

Questioner: It’s well known that simple living and high thinking are what we should aim at, but how do we know what is simple living and high thinking?

Acharya Prashant: You talked of simple living and high thinking, and you said that it's well-known that simple living and high thinking are necessary, they are important ideals, we have heard them being emphasized upon so many times, right? So, we take this as some kind of a proven truth, a universal axiom, that one must have high thinking or sometimes that one must have simple living.

The question is, how do we know what is high thinking? How do we know what is simple living? What is the place, from where we are obtaining our definitions?

There is nobody who would want to happily say that his thinking is low or lowly, right? There is nobody who would willingly embrace distorted or narrow or ugly thinking and thoughts, right? So, in his own opinion, all and everybody is going for their version of the right thought. Nobody who is thinking of anything is in his own mind thinking wrongly. In fact, we all think so much because somewhere we are confident of our thoughts and the conclusions that our thoughts would give us.

The fundamental question is, how are we so sure of our thoughts? How are we even sometimes unsure of our thoughts? We have words that are central to our lives, and we have definitions of those words. For example, you use the word simplicity, where does our definition of simplicity come from? How do we classify something as being simple versus it being complex?

So, the Upanishads ask us these questions. They challenge our basic notions and these basic notions, these basic concepts, these definitions are very very important. Because the entire structure of our life is built on these basic things. I mean life itself! What do you call as life? When we say, our entire life is built on some basic definitions, the first word that we must learn to accurately define is 'Life' itself! How do we know what is life?

There is nobody in whose life words like career, money, and education are not important. I am talking to students who are just entering a professional course. They all must have thought in terms of the word career. How do you know what is a career? What is it? What is livelihood? What is work?

Also, given the age bracket our students are in, words like love, relationships, youth, companionship, and aloneness, these must be important to them, right? And we very well know-how so much of our life depends on these things. Our concept of livelihood, money, and career relationship.

How do we know whether we really understand what work is all about? But work is such a common word. There's nobody who would say he or she does not understand the meaning of work. W-o-r-k this word exists in the English language, this word exists even in the language of science. So, we all think we know work. But do we, do we?

The Upanishads ask us some very basic questions. Do we know what is love? Do we know what it means to care for someone? Do we know what is the society? Do we know what is the country? And hence, do we know what is meant by the word responsibility? I repeat, there would be nobody who would say, “I do not know at all what responsibility means, what community means, what society means.” We all have working definitions, but those working definitions unfortunately do not work!

So, we have to go back to the basics. That's what these important books help us do. They take us to the basics. They ask us, "Who is the one setting the definition, son?" That's what the sage is asking us. He says, "Where do your concepts, and your definitions come from?" You are about to enter a college, you are about to enter a relationship; how do you know whether this thing is right for you? From where is your notion of rightness coming? Who has told you what is right and what is wrong?

You know some of the smart fellows in the audience may just quickly get up and say, “But I know on my own”. Then the Upanishads would ask, "Who are you?" Were you born with these opinions? Were you born with language? Were you born with concepts? Even two years back did you carry the same concepts that you do today? Then from where did all these things come? That's the question to be asked, where is your very self-concept coming from? Because the self that we are, the one we take ourselves to be, that itself is probably composed of just influences and influences.

The Upanishads ask us, “Is your 'self' real at all? Are you genuine?” They take it to the point of asking, "Do you exist at all? Are you there at all? Or are you just a cornucopia, at max an assortment? Who are you? Where is your individuality?" I mean that question is related to all the opinions and notions about life that we carry, because who are we except what we take ourselves to be and what we take life to be?

So that is the reason why Upanishads and wise counsel are extremely important for somebody in his tender years. Because if you lose it at this age, when will you have the opportunity to regain, or recoup? At even 25, you may find it's already too late for you and it is! You see they're all around us. I'm not talking of 35, I'm not talking about 55, I'm talking of 25. Even at 25, it's often too late for people because certain things become irreversible for them. So, before it becomes irreversible for you, it's very important to carefully assess your tracks, your mind, your decisions, your self-concept, right?

So, the Upanishads really don't teach anything. They are not about religion in the traditional sense of the word, they are not really religious scriptures. Oh, of course, they are associated with the Vedas, we all know that. But there is no need to look at them as something traditionally religious, no.

They are there to check the facts you are carrying in your mind. They are there to question the concept of reality that you carry. No, they are not there to show you the reality, mind you. They are not there to show you anything. The fact is they don't have anything of their own to show you. They don't come to you with an agenda. They don't come to you with a concept. They don't want to give you a framework, a paradigm of some kind of an alternate reality, no. They don't have any alternate reality to show to you. They just have questions, and they are very very sharp. Go to them and you will be heavily impressed by them.

The seer, you can call him spiritual but before being spiritual he is heavily intellectual. His sharpness, the way he cuts through the maze in our minds, is just awesome. So, these are pretty interesting, very fascinating documents, right? We need to approach them; we need to respect them and even respect is probably not a very agreeable word to the young. So, you don't even need to really respect them.

Just be with them and you will really enjoy the questions that are coming from them, the way they negate what we are carrying. And hence, they give us tremendous freedom to step into the reality, the truth, right? They don't enslave us or chain us with a model that is coming from antiquity, no. They just help you get rid of the chains that you are carrying today. And once you have dropped those bondages then you are all free to enter life as an authentic individual, that's how they help us. And that's why I am very enthusiastic about taking the Upanishads to all audiences particularly the young.

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